Ahmed Al Ahmed’s Syrian hometown speaks of pride for Australia’s hero

In Nayrb, a battered rural town east of Idlib city, Ahmed Al Ahmed’s name has travelled fast, spoken in Syrian homes and in phone calls that cross continents.

The footage from Sydney showing an unarmed man tackling a gunman on a crowded beach landed here not as distant news but as something intensely personal. For a community shaped by war, it felt like a moment of recognition.

“We are proud of Ahmed,” Mohamed Al Ahmed, his cousin, told The National near the family's house. “He left the village and emigrated years ago ... but, given all that we have seen [from the former regime] he acted without hesitating".

Originally from Nayrb, Mr Al Ahmed grew up in a close-knit agricultural town that would later be heavily bombed by forces loyal to Bashar Al Assad, and emptied by waves of displacement. During the war, it became a frontline area and was accused by Damascus of harbouring “terrorists”. Much of the area was flattened, homes reduced to rubble, families scattered across Idlib, Turkey and beyond.

Hero who disarmed Bondi gunman speaks to friends from hospital bed 00:55

Yet before the war erupted in 2011, Nayrb was defined by ordinary routines. It sits on Idlib’s open plains, surrounded by wheat fields and seasonal crops, its narrow roads linking it to nearby villages and to Idlib city.

“Ahmed used to live with us,” said another of his cousins, Ahmad Al Ahmed, 33. “We walked home together. We spoke the village dialect. We played together. We lived beautiful days.”

Mr Al Ahmed emigrated to Australia in search of work in around 2006, long before Idlib became the centre of Syria’s rebellion. Like many young men from rural areas, he carried with him the expectation that he would one day return. The war erased that possibility. His family home was later destroyed by regime bombing, another address lost in a province where destruction became routine.

“People scattered,” Mohamed said. “Everyone went wherever they could.”

Idlib itself was transformed. Once marginalised and largely agricultural, it became the main bastion of the rebellion against Assad’s rule, absorbing millions of displaced Syrians from across the country. That experience, the family says, explains what happened on Bondi Beach.

The town of Nayrb, the hometown of Ahmed Al Ahmed. Reuters

Overnight hero

On Sunday, the father of one was walking along Bondi Beach when he heard gunfire nearby. Fifteen people were killed in the attack, which police say was carried out by a father and son during a Hanukkah event. Amid the chaos, he found himself close to one of the attackers.

“His instinct was to confront the terrorist and take the weapon from him,” Mohamed said.

Mr Al Ahmed wrestled the gunman to the ground and took his weapon. He was shot twice in the process and seriously injured. Video of the moment, which has been widely shared online, shows an unarmed man charging forwards while others fled.

The Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese later confirmed that Mr Al Ahmed was the bystander who intervened, saying he took the weapon “at great risk to himself”.

To Australians, he became a hero overnight.